Women in the Boardroom: Different in Style, Equal in Ability

Jayne Chace, CMO of Coriant, shares her experiences growing up in America as both a woman and a marketing executive. Her “can-do” attitude that led her to enjoy a successful career has recently been replaced by doubt. The key deterrent? Gender issues in the boardroom.

Women are different from men in the ways they communicate and behave. The risk of intermixing genders in a boardroom setting can contribute to a positive financial impact, with discomfort being a small price to pay. Many of the most powerful female executives are American women, but equality will not be achieved until attitudes change. Although this is a huge challenge, the results will have promising effects on both people and profits.

Why aren’t women invited as readily into the boardroom as they are into the bedroom? That is the question puzzling women who have demonstrated their value to the corporate bottom line, but still find the boardroom invitations elusive.

Growing up in America, I was nurtured by a “can do” culture that taught me to believe I could aspire to any position I was willing to work hard enough to achieve. After graduate school, I became a university history professor. Eight years later, I moved into the business world, quickly rising up the corporate ladder to CMO in a global behemoth. People asked what made me think I could succeed in making such a dramatic career change.

My honest response: “It never occurred to me that I couldn’t.”

Sheer persistence and a belief in the power to determine my destiny have been the driving forces behind my successful career…. until recently. Now, I am not as confident that females like me can reach the next plateau and be invited into the boardroom as executives of Fortune 250 companies. And the key inhibitor I perceive is gender.

It isn’t that men are misogynists. Rather, it seems that the differences in how men and women communicate, negotiate and confront difficult issues arising in Board meetings can create sufficient discomfort. As a result, most men do what is “natural” and avoid this uneasy situation by selecting people who behave more like themselves – other men in their network.

Thus, the cycle perpetuates itself and despite media clamour for more diversity in boardrooms, the total percentage of female members remains minuscule. The challenge, therefore, is how to break the cycle.

History indicates that a draconian event and/or legal compulsion is the most successful – albeit not the most comfortable – method to force behavioural change. While the action often generates negative emotions, the different groups forced together generally find a positive and constructive way to interact and collaborate – and usually within a relatively short period of time. In other words, mandating co-existence in close proximity enables them to get beyond the “differences.”

The Catalyst group in New York validated this conclusion in several studies of the Fortune 1000 companies. Data analysis revealed that gender diversity was related to a 35% higher profitable corporate performance. Females can provide valuable insights into customer buying patterns, potential product usage and promotion and help with dispute resolution and customer satisfaction. Why? Because females are often 50% of the potential customer base and – in many industries, like automotive – women are also the key influencers in male buying decisions. Therefore, disregarding female insight would be a crippling business folly.

Additionally, women usually have market intelligence, networks and insights that differ from their male colleagues with similar backgrounds and connections. For example, at board meetings (where I was the lone female NED), I was commended for my contributions on a variety of board issues that varied from protecting IP in the Chinese manufacturing plants, selecting which laser technology made the best long-term investment, using stock options to motivate underpaid employees in our young company, and identifying a new growth market.

As a female in marketing (rather than a male CFO or CEO), I had been considered a “risky” board appointment. People like the safe route and boards want people with experience.

Unfortunately, most females don’t have board experience – and now we have a chicken/egg dilemma.

So it’s back to the beginning: how do women get that first chance? Hopefully, the proverbial glass ceiling won’t ossify into a shatterproof diamond barrier. Statistics show that many successful female executives prefer to start their own company rather than wait for the “glass cliff” opportunity whereby the top job is offered only when the company is in the most precarious condition. Despite disparaging the American laws legislating “politically correct” and anti-discriminatory gender behaviour, the laws have modified the way men and women interact. It isn’t just coincidence that many of the most powerful female executives are American women.

But females won’t be equal participants in the boardroom unless attitudes change. Women may be different in style but are equal in ability. Managing and promoting a positive attitude toward diversity is something male executives can lead by inviting women onto boards. It is a huge challenge for corporations of all sizes, but one that will have a profound and positive effect on people and profits.